Natural Healing
On Feb 7, 2023, I visited my doctor for the first time since 2017. While having a massage a week or so earlier, I had felt pain in my breast and decided to get it checked. She immediately sent me to get a mammogram and an ultrasound, both of which I had not done since that same year. The radiologist, a friend of my doctor’s, called her right after my visit. She in turn called me, revealing that the results were “highly suggestive of malignancy.” My doctor urged me to get a biopsy ASAP. I could schedule with her secretary who she shared with her husband, a surgeon. Reluctantly, I booked an appointment and saw the surgeon. After checking me, he declared himself unable to perform the biopsy due to the spread out nature of our subject of inquiry. I needed to see yet another - fourth - specialist. All within a twenty-four hour span of time, I went to see his colleague back at the hospital, and a technician explained the procedure, quoting me a rather hefty sum of money.
By this point my head was reeling with all sorts of questions and scenarios, and my emotions were all over the place. I needed to regroup and center and find the right answers to help me process.
The next day I went to see my friend Dr Romy Paredes at the Wellnessland Health Institute in Cebu, Philippines, where I have been based since 2013. Dr Romy is a medical doctor with radical views about natural ways of healing - aligned to my own. I showed Dr Romy my results and he congratulated me on not getting a biopsy. I told him I was not planning to undergo traditional forms of treatment (surgery and chemo) and was determined to heal myself naturally, with his support. I knew I had found an ally. Doc Romy and I agreed on a protocol and I set to work on being the best student on how to heal this situation from the inside out. I was by far not his first patient!
There was another person I wanted to speak to, and this was Dr Eva Muller, a good friend from Cebu who now shuttles between her native Germany and Manila, attending to her patients internationally. Like Dr Romy, Eva is open to natural ways of healing and is well aware of my energy work background. Again I shared my story with her, and my conversation with Dr Romy. To my surprise, she asked me questions of a more existential nature, such as my relationship with Death, the community, my sense of purpose and mission and things of that nature. Thankfully, I am inherently very prone to self-reflection to begin with, but this added dimension to my life prompted even more deep dives into the meaning of life, and mine in particular. I was able to answer Eva’s questions with clarity and conviction. Finally, she invited me to consider opening this journey to my community, one thing I had not at all considered at that time.
So little by little, I started sharing a story I originally wanted to keep private, to friends and family. There was some concern of course, but mostly an outpouring of love, support, and mostly faith, that fills me with so much gratitude and joy. When I was scheduled to give a talk on meditation in my womens’ group six weeks after that day in February, I tweaked my topic to talk about healing yourself naturally. Privately, I received messages of hope and inspiration and gratitude. This is also why I am writing this piece today.
To all the people who receive a scary diagnosis that sounds like a death sentence, know that there is so much you can do and learn to listen to your body by first quieting the mind. In that sense, meditation can be a life saver. When I received that news on that day, I felt compassion for all the beings who are in a fragile mental state, unable to cope with the added anxiety or stress such a diagnosis could impart. Our bodies hold so much wisdom. Most of the time illness is there to ask us to slow down enough to listen and connect to that wisdom.
Please message me if you would like a list of the natural protocols that I have been doing now for over six weeks and that seem to be working. I am feeling joyful and light, and my lumps seem to have reduced in size. I have so much gratitude to Doc Romy and Dr Eva for their love and support and the work they do tirelessly day after day. May you always be blessed!
